Second draft
Promotion of Dance
Category: Education and Culture
Area of Effect: Cultural Heritage
Description: The World Assembly,
Aware that not only can dancing be a pleasant form of entertainment and exercise but that particular dances of various kinds, both social and ritual, have been important culturally in many societies too,
Understanding also that dance can help to bring people together,
Believing that these effects have generally been a good thing, which should be celebrated and continued,
Concerned that shifts in popular taste and other cultural changes might lead to the details of some dance forms being lost, although those forms might be very welcome if introduced into some other cultures or even if subsequently reintroduced into the societies where they were previously practiced,
Desiring to avert any such losses,
For the purposes of this resolution, considering ‘Dance’ to include ‘Figure-Skating’;
1). Strongly encourages member nations to promote dance amongst their peoples, as a potential improver of social harmony as well as as a source of healthful exercise and a form of entertainment;
2). Strongly encourages member nations to conserve the details of their peoples’ traditional dances;
3). Founds an agency to be called the ‘World Assembly Library of Terpsichorean Zest’ (or ‘WALTZ’), and instructs this body
A/To collect and archive the details of as many different dances as they can, including details such as origins, purposes, music, steps, other movements, typical clothing worn during them, and so on, with audiovisual recordings of both typical and exemplary performances where possible;
B/To make copies of this information available upon request to member nation’s governments, freely, and also to make this information available to individuals and groups from within member nations although in their case reasonable fees may be charged for the service;
C/To offer any non-member nations whose governments are interested and are willing to pay reasonable subscription fees annually the option of access to WALTZ’s services as well;
D/Whilst performing the above duties, to respect both property rights — including ‘intellectual property’ rights — and the fact that some cultures may regard certain of their traditional dances as too private a matter for sharing with outsiders or at least may wish to place limitations on any such sharing allowed;
4). Directs WALTZ to cooperate with the Universal Library Coalition and the Museums of Musical Heritage, and vice versa, in any situations where their interests converge;
5). Strongly urges member nations to cooperate with WALTZ;
6). Does the Locomotion.
Changes from the first draft: Preamble extended by the addition of a clause to clarify that the proposal also covers Figure-Skating (which nations that have also been involved in the NS Olympics might recognise as a reference to the Bears’ demonstrated interest in that activity…) operative clause #1 changed from “Encourages” to “Strongly Encourages”, and new clause #2 —whose addition seemed a good idea anyhows — made a “Strongly encourages” one from the start to increase the likelihood of the Secretariat agreeing that this proposal does enough to count as legal; subsequent clauses re-numbered accordingly; last word of current operative clause #4 (formerly #3) altered from “coincide” to “converge”
Artorrios o SouthWoods,
ChairBear, Bears Armed Mission at the World Assembly.
(OOC: I'm saying ‘Cultural Heritage’ rather than ‘Artistic’ for the area of effect because the basic idea is more about conserving and redistributing relevant knowledge than it is [directly] about increased funding.)
